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    Mar 15, 2015

    The God Story 4: The Inciting Incident

    The God Story 4: The Inciting Incident

    Passage: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: The God Story

    Category: God's Relationship with You

    Keywords: god story, inciting incident

    Have you noticed how sometimes God uses the most unlikely of people to do His work?

    David was an unlikely candidate to lead God’s people. He was very young – just a boy. He came in from the fields dirty and probably smelly, having slept with the sheep that night. Can’t you just see his little-boy hair sticking up in all directions? Mud on his robe? When he was placed alongside his older, handsome, strong brothers, Samuel’s choice made no sense whatsoever!

    Here’s our first Tweet question for today:

    Who are some other unlikely candidates in scripture that God used in a mighty way?

    As you chew on that question – and send us all some answers! – let’s take a moment to look at the scriptures that Ben read for us a moment ago. Paul helps us see that God always has a better story for us – a story where, no matter what we have done, no matter what our particular gifts, God invites us into God’s story of love and grace and salvation. Paul clearly tells us that our wisdom is just not God’s – and God can use those that we probably think are just not worthy – foolish, even. And look at the end of that passage. Paul makes clear that our wise, graceful acts are born of God – not human wisdom. Human “wisdom” can so often become arrogance and manipulation.

    Now think for a moment about people you know – both individually and collectively. Who, in your estimation, could never be used by God? Who wouldn’t have anything to contribute? Now, some of you are thinking this is a trick question. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, we’re no different from the Jews in the Acts passage. The Jews could not believe that God would allow the Gentiles to become real Christians. After all, they were not part of the Chosen People. They didn’t follow the right rules. The men were not circumcised. They were not worthy – not clean – not deserving!

    There are a couple of things that I want to emphasize today, two things that I hope you will take with you and chew on this week. The first is this: God calls the unlikely and gives them a better story.

    Here’s our second Tweet question for today:

    Supposing we are very like the Jews in the first century, what does that say to us about where we look for God’s guidance?

    In a great story, an Inciting Incident might also be called a Defining Moment – a moment when you know things will just never be the same.

    • The day you learn that there will be a new baby.
    • The day you are accepted to the college of your dreams.
    • The day your parent dies.
    • The day you make a huge mistake and wonder if it can ever be made right.

    In every good story, there is some kind of Defining Moment. In the story of David, there are many:

    • Anointing by Saul when he was a boy
    • Slaying Goliath
    • Becoming king
    • Sinning with Bathsheba and trying to cover it up
    • The death of his son

    Jacob Alexander says, in our study guide, “It can be tempting in these life-changing moments to immediately begin to think about how you can resolve all the issues that have arisen. The key to an Inciting Incident in the God Story is looking for where God is in the change and how God wants you to proceed.”

    Looking back over your life, what are the Inciting Incidents that come to mind? Those moments when you knew your life would change forever. Jot a couple down on your Musings page in your bulletin. How about tweeting a few of those defining moments when you’re ready?

    Now consider these 2 questions:

    1. Did you see God at work at the time?
    2. Looking back, where do you see God working at that time in your life?

    So, let’s take a look at another story – a story of a man, Bruce, whose life came to a screeching halt on one particular day. He was fired from his job and was beaten by thugs, and to top it all off, he had a terrible fight with his girlfriend Grace (interesting name in the context of the movie!) who was a praying woman. Her encouragement to pray just made him madder – and mostly he got mad at God.

    Bruce receives some unusual text messages and when he responds to them, he meets God, and they work out a deal. God sees that Bruce believes he has all the answers. Like many of us, Bruce thinks he can fix things all by himself – doesn’t need God. So, God gives Bruce just enough of God’s powers to let Bruce experience how challenging it is to be God. Let’s see what happens.

    Of course, Bruce’s actions lead to chaos. Everybody wins the lottery – so their prizes are tiny. There is rioting in the streets. He ruins his relationship with Grace. Predictably, he gets more and more arrogant, even calling himself the Alpha and Omega.

    Here’s the thing. For all of us, including Bruce, there usually comes a time when we know we can’t go it alone – when we know that we need help to move through the challenges of life. Just as David learns as a result of the exposure of his liaison with Bathsheba, his actions that cause the death of Bathsheba’s husband, and the death of his son, Bruce, learns that he cannot go it alone. Both of them could have just thrown in the towel. But each of them had a new Defining Moment. Instead of running away from God, they ran to God.

    That second thing I want to be sure you take home with you today? God is always ready to take us back – and surrender is the first step to restoration.

    Are you ready for restoration? Ready to surrender? Feel free to come now to the altar to pray. Stay as long as you’d like as we sing and even as we pray our congregational prayers together.